This week’s Soulful Sunday track goes back to the late sixties. You might have recently heard this track sampled by MF Doom on the track “Old School.” (I have it below for comparison.) It was difficult to choose one track off this album because there was so many stellar arrangements on it. However, most of the other tracks like “The Serpent” and “Spinning Wheel” are more jazzy and I didn’t feel it fit in for Soulful Sunday.
You can hear the opening break of this song instantly grab your attention and I’m sure some of the b-boy readers of this have already started to nod their heads. The piano breakdown and solo is one of the most uplifting parts of this track. Once you feel that this gets a little repetitive Mansfield tastefully switches it up to the piano and brings back the horns for one final call. Truly one of Keith Mansfield’s best works.
Bobby Byrd will probably be best known for his association with James Brown. However, Byrd had many successful years as a solo artist and with other groups. “If You Don’t Work” is one of Byrd’s early tracks that I feel didn’t get the same fame as “Hot Pants.” (After all, “Hot Pants” was sampled by nearly every rap artist in the late 80’s and 90’s.)
“If You Don’t Work” is a superb funk track with a pretty straight forward message. The lyrics aren’t complicated but they hold true even for today. The simple guitar riff throughout the song really keeps your attention and carries the track. The horns give it that classic James Brown/Bobby Byrd flavor. The drums keep your feet moving. Perfect track for Funk Friday.
It took me a minute to post this up but here’s my latest mix. It’s got just a jazzy flow to it. Overall I feel it is a decent mix. Let me know what you think about it. The tracklisting is below. Listen to it on iTunes or on SoundCloud
Jazz Con Bazz - Da Huzle
People Under The Stairs - Suite For Beaver (Part 1)
Tony D - Piano Grand
Smoke No Bones - Lyrics and Vibes
Ta’Raach - Baaby
L-Fudge - Liquid (Instrumental)
Mr. Scruff - How Sweet It Is
Mass Influence - A Yo! Atlanta Ya On
UMOD - U Better Recognise
DJ Numark & DJ Pomo - The Way I Think
Today is more about a lesson than an album review. The dusty crate digging funk and soul lesson of today is you can almost judge a good album by its cover. To illustrate my point we’ll take this cover Tom Brock’s “I Love You More and More.” Now let’s take a minute and conjure up an image.
Let’s say that you were the smoothest cat at the bar and you actually picked up a beautiful young lady. (We all know that has never happened to you, but just make pretend for a moment that it has.) You are really attracted to this girl and you want to impress the panties off of her. Now you bring her back to your place, and you decide to get a little more comfortable and put on your pimp ass smoking jacket, and open up a fresh bottle of Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot. You pour the lady and yourself a glass and sit down and begin to tell her how you save kitties stuck in trees, cried at The Notebook, and how much you enjoy John Mayer’s music. Now you aren’t jumping the gun to get in her drawers because you are smooth like that and want to get her so wound up that one touch from you will send her into ecstasy. Got that image in your head? Okay good. What does it look like? Chances are it looks like this cover here. And chances are this is the closest that you and I will ever get to that situation.
Anyway, this is Tom Brock’s finest and only album. It’s filled with beautiful strings, driving bass lines and rhythmic beats, with funky up-tempo rhythms. Tom Brock’s vocals on this album are top notch. Then again, what would you expect from a protégé of the walrus of love himself, Barry White. Oh that was never mentioned? That’s right Tom Brock was mentored by White himself. In fact, Barry produced this album. I am actually very surprised that this album never went anywhere. With it being produced by Barry, and just the great soul that is on this album, I’m just truly surprised that this wasn’t an instant classic.
Now for the juicy details of this album. We all know Jay-Z, well “Girls, Girls, Girls” came from this album here. Also, nearly every track on this album has sample qualities. In fact, I’m producing music for a few artists and already four tracks of there album were sampled from this. If you are a crate digger you must find this album.
Tom Brock – I Love You More And More
Track listing:
1. Have A Nice Week End Baby
2. The Love We Share Is The Greatest Of Them All
3. there’s nothing in this world that can stop me from loving you
This is one of the most legendary funk albums of the 70’s. It’s one of those albums that when you find it you will become the envy of any crate digger out there. And thanks to Clay at 52.5 Records he was able to land a copy of this album for me. So you can send your hate emails to me whenever. Anyway, the Skull Snaps cut just this one album and it’s blend of hard breaks, soulful vocals, and soaring grooves will continue to make this album a must for any collector for years to come.
I only heard the track “It’s a New Day.” prior to the whole album. It is a phemominal mix of soul and funk, not to mention the opening break has been sampled by so many rap artists. In fact, some record collectors swear up and down this track gave the rhythm for nearly all the early 90’s rap and has been credited as the most sampled drum beat in all rap music.
The album as a whole is just this incredible ride through a funk and soul rollercoaster! After listening to the first side of the album, I was blown away by each of the tracks. The haunting vocals, and the breaks were just insane! I got up and flipped the record over to the B-Side and the ride did not stop. The first song that comes at you is “I’m Your Pimp” and you would swear that should have been used in a Dolemite movie. With lyrics like, “I wear my hat to the side….I walk with a limp…” How could it have not been in that movie?
This is one of the best albums that I have ever heard. This goes to show that digging does pay off, and to stay away from the Top 40. You don’t find real soul like this in music today. This album is a perfect example of early 70’s funk and will continue to be a collector’s item. In fact you can only find re-issues on Ebay and for the actual album, good luck trying to find one under triple digits.
Tracks A1 My Hang Up Is You (4:02)
A2 Having You Around (4:30)
A3 Didn’t I Do It To You (3:15)
A4 All Of A Sudden (3:23)
A5 It’s A New Day (3:04)
B1 I’m Your Pimp (4:03)
B2 I Turn My Back On Love (2:45)
B3 Trespassing (4:03)
B4 I’m Falling Out Of Love (2:46)
Not only is this a great album to chill and listen to, it is one of Grover Washington’s most sampled albums. In fact, I believe every song has been sampled on this album.
The title track “Feels So Good” was sampled by Gangstarr’s very own Guru in “Slicker than Most.”
The track “Moonstreams” was sampled by DMX in his track “Slippin.”
“Knucklehead” is constantly sampled over and over again. Just listen to it and the list of songs will build in your head.
And finally last but certainly not least, Hydra. Who has not sampled this track? We’ve got A Tribe Called Quest who sampled the drums for their track “Check the Rhyme.” The Artifacts also did this on “Wrong Side of the Tracks.” Big Daddy Kane used it in “Daddy’s Home,” and Biggie used it in the album version of “One More Chance.”
Quite possibly the worst, if not one in the top 5 worst rap songs of all time. In fact it is so bad, that if you were to Google it. It doesn’t even come up. Take a listen if you dare. Yes it’s about a Nissan truck. It’s terrible I’m done talking about it.
P.S. The flip side has an instrumental version for all those who want to remix it out there.
